Jazz and soul superstar Gregory Porter’s critically-acclaimed record breaking album ‘Take Me To The Alley’ has won Best Jazz Vocal Album at this year’s Grammy Awards. The awards, which took place last night, saw Gregory win a second Grammy award, after he scooped best jazz vocal album in 2014 for his classic record, ‘Liquid Spirit’ and received previous nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album for the Water in 2011, Best Traditional R&B Performance for ‘Real Good Hands’ in 2013 and Best Traditional R&B Performance for ‘Hey Laura’ in 2014.
Gregory’s Grammy win follows a landmark year for the Jazz cat in the hat, who in 2016 made UK chart history, when he landed two studio albums in the Official Albums Chart Top 20 simultaneously and his critically-acclaimed new album ‘Take Me To The Alley’ became the first jazz record to break into the Top 5 for over ten years. This level of public affection saw Porter become an adopted national treasure in the UK, having performed for the Queen multiple times, and graced the stages of the UK’s best venues and summer festivals. The singer featured as the only musical performance on BBC1’s ‘Attenborough at 90’ and led a chorus of music stars, including Mumford and Sons, in a moving version of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ on BBC2’s ‘Later with Jools’.
Last year saw Porter complete an extensive sold-out UK Headline Tour, opening and closing at prestigious London venues The Royal Albert Hall and Hammersmith Apollo. Gregory also returned to Glastonbury Festival, this time on the Pyramid Stage bill along with the likes of Muse, Adele, Coldplay and Beck. He also performed at BBC’s ‘A Festival In A Day’ in London’s Hyde Park last summer, where he joined a line-up that included high profile performers including Elton John.
Gregory Porter will once again soundtrack our summer, when he returns to the UK this year to perform at Love Supreme Jazz Festival at the end of June. Gregory will also be performing at Cheltenham Jazz Festival in April– for more information please visit http://www.gregoryporter.com/live/
